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Perhaps Lyra should be the Winchester News Pet of the Week — she’s a therapy dog and she shares the Helpers Among Us category with her owner, Frank Siteman.
He says he knew Lyra would make a good therapy dog.
“Lyra’s behaviors are consistent with what a therapy animal should have,” Siteman says. “She’s only barked six times in her short life, she doesn’t jump or scratch, she’s good in elevators and gets along with other dogs.
“She’s not an alpha and she leaves things on the floor,” an important quality when in a hospital where anything might be there, he adds.
Lyra isn’t jolted by sudden noises of the machinery, “or the patients,” says Siteman.
Siteman says he heard that many patients want to see a dog before they die, which is what got him thinking about getting Lyra certified as a therapy animal. His wife Lynnette suggested that he consider also taking Lyra to the waiting area where visitors might need comforting.
A Pond Street resident, Siteman takes Lyra walking around Horn Pond several times a day and he met Penny Lane with her owner who said Penny Lane is a therapy dog.
“His dog was trained at Caring Canines, so that’s where Lyra went through the licensing process,” he says.
The first year, Siteman says, “We visited memory care units in the area, but they limit visits to 30 minutes.”
He realized driving there and back for just a half hour visit wasn’t practical.
Now he and Lyra visit special needs third- and fourth-graders at Arlington’s Dallin School, and Lexington’s Youville Assisted Living, where Siteman has a 90-year-old friend. But most of their therapy visits are at Lahey Hospital.
“The nurses are incredible,” says Siteman. “I never imagined how intense their job is. When the emergency room medical staff hear that Lyra’s visiting, they give her dog treats.”
Not only do they visit patients in different departments, but also, says Siteman, “Lynnette gave me the idea to go into waiting rooms where I ask, ‘Does anyone want to be distracted by a dog?’”
“A nurse told me that after we visited her patient who hadn’t spoken in a long time, she turned to her and said, ‘Isn’t that a lovely dog,’” Siteman says.
For more photos, visit Lyra’s Lahey website gallery.
A retired photographer, Siteman’s favorite project was a calendar for a pet food company. He points out that the calendar is valid every fourteen years, including this year.
